Commentary Inf IV 84

The appearance of the four poets, neither sad nor joyful, reflects their condition of being 'suspended.' See C.Inf.IV.45. This view was first advanced by Jacopo della Lana (DDP Lana.Inf.IV.84), who saw them as not being sad because they suffer no physical pain in Limbo, as not being joyful because they are denied heaven. This entirely sensible view was opposed by Boccaccio (DDP Boccaccio.Inf.IV.84), who read the detail as only denoting the gravitas of these great figures, a reading that avoids any theological framing of their condition. For details of the debate thus generated, see Mazzoni (Mazz.1965.1), pp. 130-136.